Arthur, a gay American living in New Zealand, largely due to affairs of the heart and antiquated US laws re: the same, wrote some nice things about me. “As I see it, this inevitable victory is being particularly helped along by people like Roger: Straight Christians who put their commitment to justice out there for all to see, living their faith, being an example for others who have not yet spoken up. There are more people like Roger than anyone realises, far more than there are members of the anti-gay industry.”
This was very nice to read. But I wish more people had been able to attend our church service this past Sunday. They would have heard the Albany Gay Men’s Chorus sing lovely songs. They would have seen our display as part of the Shower of Stoles Project. And, they would have heard an inspirational sermon by our co-pastor, Miriam Lawrence Leupold.
Can’t do much about a couple of those things. But I am excerpting large portions of Miriam’s sermon, with her permission. It is the material in bold.

The theme for More Light Sunday this year is “Make It Better,” and it comes from the LGBT adult message “It does get better” to LGBT youth. This morning in the 9:30 education class, youth from the Pride Center spoke about ways it was indeed getting better for them. That was an inspirational session with a high school senior and a college sophomore.

The sermon scripture was Acts 16:11-15, 40 about Lydia, a strong woman and a seller of purple, and her hospitality to Paul and Silas and their companions.

Hospitality plays a role in the New Testament. In all the stories of the risen Jesus, the disciples consistently do not recognize him – in the garden outside the tomb, on the road to Emmaus as they are walking, and on the beach at daybreak. In Luke’s gospel the disciples are slowly walking home to Emmaus and are greeted by Jesus, although they have no idea who he is. They spend hours together in conversation, but it is only after they press him to spend the night and a meal with them – that is, when they offer hospitality-that their “eyes were opened, and they recognized him.” They indeed made it better—they offered hospitality to a stranger, breaking bread together, and in that act, they saw Jesus.

Despite the role hospitality plays in the Bible, there are some Christians that don’t follow that example in their ministry.

Some of you will remember that in March 2009 some of the members of the Westboro Baptist Church from Topeka, Kansas, made a visit here to Albany. This is the group that claims that every tragedy in the world is linked to homosexuality. They have been known to protest at various events including the funerals of military personnel. This time the group and their leader, Fred Phelps, were planning to picket outside Albany High School because, for one thing, they have a lesbian/gay-straight alliance group. Many folks throughout the Capital Region were outraged that they were planning to come and protest outside the high school…

But people were bothered by what they witnessed the Westboro Church group doing outside Albany High — five people were holding “God hates fags” signs, others were stomping on an American flag; others were chanting about dead babies and how America’s lapsed morality was causing the deaths of its soldiers; and others were calling President Barack Obama the devil. Hundreds of students from high schools and colleges around the region showed up to counter-protest.

Eight months later, Phelps’ message still had the school talking about how to respond when someone says the ugliest thing possible. School assemblies and seminars were held on homophobia, racism, AIDS-related issues, suicide prevention and homelessness. And these culminated in the theatrical production of the Laramie Project in November 2009, which revolves around the savage beating death of gay University of Wyoming student Mathew Shepard in 1998. Aaron Moore, a student in the play, had earlier watched in horror as a 10-year-old boy in the Westboro group had screamed against homosexuals during the protest. In commenting to the Times Union reporter about the Laramie Project, Moore said, “I hope it fills those who watch it with love, with the knowledge that this is our world. This is how it’s going to be and this is how it’s going to stay.” The school’s theater teacher, Ward Dales, had been wanting to bring this production to the high school but had been told that it might not be appropriate for children or the easily offended. Phelps and the Westboro’s group presence in Albany in March of 2009 made that production in November 2009 possible. In fact, as Dales put it, the Westboro group made it impossible to do any other play.

What a way to make it better – to take an ugly incident and redeem it. To witness such hate but to then tell the other side. The Westboro group’s visit inspired some young people to come out and tell people they were gay. In other words, the visit by Phelps and his church had the opposite of its intended effect. His message of hate led to a message of love. And a powerful one at that. I’m glad his group came to Albany. The school and the community were nudged out of its complacency and took a stand in favor of love and hospitality. The school decided to make it better. Phelps wanted this community to make it worse. Instead we made it better. Just as the Laramie Project redeemed a bit of the tragic death of Matthew Shepard, so the anti-bias awareness efforts redeemed the pro-bias message of Fred Phelps.

I believe that we have also recently witnessed a step in making it better in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Ever since 1978, LGBT folks and their allies have been trying to move the Presbyterian church in the direction of full inclusion of gays and lesbians—that means that LGBT folks should have all the rights and privileges of membership, including ordination as deacons, elders and ministers of word and sacrament. In 1997 wording was added to our constitution, our Book of Order, to make it that much more difficult for a practicing gay or lesbian Presbyterian to be honest about who they are and also hold office. However in May, with the passing of Amendment 10-A and the changing of that wording – the Presbyterian church has made it better. Now one’s sexuality – gay or straight – is not the litmus test for ordination. Instead, our obedience and fidelity to Jesus Christ is what all people seeking ordination are to be judged by.

There is still work to do within the Presbyterian church to make it better for our LGBT brothers and sisters. Glenn [Miriam’s co-pastor and husband] and I as ordained clergy are still not able to extend to all members the same privileges – we are not able to perform same-gender weddings. We will continue to work with other Presbyterians throughout the United Sates to make it better.

A TV show I try not to miss is Grey’s Anatomy on Thursday night. It’s a show about a hospital in Seattle and the various doctors, interns, residents and the drama that ensues both with patients and each other. On one of the last episodes of the season, two lesbian doctors, Torres and Robbins, were getting married. As happens with some weddings, things were beginning to fall apart. However, in this case it was because the mother of one of the bride’s, Torres, refused to attend the wedding and then the pastor was suddenly unable to officiate because his wife was in an auto accident and they are in the ER. One of the other doctors, Miranda Bailey, stops in to see how the motherless bride is getting ready, only to find that Torres is now convinced that this should not happen. How could this situation possibly be made better, I was wondering. And then it happened, right there in full color, redemptive words come out of the mouth of Dr Bailey. She says, “Where is God, God is in you, God is in me, right here in the middle of us; the church just hasn’t caught up to God yet; your mother just hasn’t caught up to God yet; the world has not caught up with God.” The world has not caught up with God…I like that.

God is trying to make it better, but instead of responding to what God is doing with hospitality and compassion, many in our society respond with bias, anger, indifference or bigotry. But it is the center of Christian hope in what God is doing, to see all of this as two steps forward followed by only one step back. Slow, but progress.

May we at First Presbyterian do all that we can do to help with that progress. May we catch up with God.

This Sunday, June 12, church members will be participating in the Pride Parade at noon. Read about More Light Presbyterians.

4 Responses

Okay, gotta admit: it seems that the Bible is pretty clear on the issue of, at minimum, male homosexuality.

That being said, I do distinguish between my morality and the laws of the secular state that I live in.

A good example is pornography. I find people who consume pornography disgusting because it’s an industry that exploits lower-class women.

However, do I think pornography should be illegal? No, because it’s not the government’s business to regulate morality (IMHO.) People should be free to produce it and consume it – and I’m free to think of those that do as pigs.

So, with gay marriage: I don’t “support” it, but I really don’t care if it gets legalized. I’m not going to be jumping up and down screaming or even fail to vote someone in because they legalized it. If it’s that important, go ahead.

Besides, Canada’s had gay marriage for years, and has only performed something like 13,000 marriages over the past 7 years, while it’s had over a million straight marriages. Why do we waste so much time on something that looks like it’s only going to affect less than 1% of the population?

One could, and I won’t here, get into a debate about whether the Bible is clear on this, or it is a translation problem re exploitative relationships. That said, I agree with the basic point you make between “my morality and the laws of the secular state that I live in. “

Everybody’s got different moral rules – we live in an incredibly diverse, pluralistic nation.

If you try to regulate morality… well, I can think of a lot of people’s moralities that I don’t want to live under, thank you.

And when you try to regulate what people do with their own bodies, it gets expensive, both socially and economically.

I don’t approve of drug use, but I really disapprove of the 50-100 billion a year we spend on the Drug War, plus all the lives we destroy by giving stoners a criminal record and wasting space that could be used for real criminals like rapists and murderers.

I think I’ve hit upon the problem: we’ve begun to look at Mommy and Daddy government and technocrat as our source of moral principals and guidance to behavior.

I think THAT’S why people care about this. (That, and it involves the dirty-dirty of sex.)

“If the government endorses it – or even just fails to make it illegal – it must be okay!” Started with the Pure Food and Drug Act.

I will maintain that neon orange food – even if it’s endorsed by the government – is not okay. I will maintain all those snake-oils you can buy over the counter – herbal remedies to cold remedies – are not okay.

But people consume buckets of them, because Mommy and Daddy government haven’t made them illegal.

It’s a derliction of adulthood is what it is. People think that just because the government hasn’t made it illegal, then it’s okay to consume for your mind and your body.

Thought of it when thinking of ancient marriage laws:

Could you imagine 100, 200 years ago someone saying “No, your friend is dying… but you can’t go see them…”?

Maybe more fundemental things like “why are people being banned in hospital rooms?” should be brought to question on this?

(And if someone says “crowding,” I have been to MANY hospital rooms in the last 10 years, and I can tell you “getting a single kid/ grandkid to visit” is a far larger problem than “crowding.”)

jack

Note: The Times Union is not responsible for posts and comments written by non-staff members.